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PAGE 8 September 19, 1985

Rambo:

From Canadian University Press

‘‘It was a lie, wasn’t it -- just like
the war.’’
-Col. Trautman in Rambo

The Vietnam War is dead, long live
the Vietnam War. Ten years after the
fall of Saigon, the American Right is
still fighting to win the war - the war
of history over how the American
involvement in Vietnam is perceived.
They know what actually happened
often matters less than what people
think really happened. If history is
rewritter.-to. their satisfaction, the
new, ideolically improved version of
the ‘‘good war’’ in Indochina will
make similar military excursions in
Nicaragua, El Salvador, and else-
where much easier to justify.

Leading the way in this battle for
Yankee hearts and minds are block-
buster films like Rambo, Uncommon
Valor, and Missing in Action, in
which the USA kicks ass in a rematch
with the ‘‘Vee Cees’’. In terms of
their impact, they may yet be among
the most important films of the
decade, or a curious cultural footnote
to a frightening time gone by. It all
depends on who wins the war.

Together with predecessors like
First Blood and fanatical fellow trav-
ellers like Red Dawn (where the
Russians, Cubans, and Sandinistas
invade the U.S.), these movies are so
similar

in one group. Whether their aim is to
turn a profit or to make a genuine
political statement is inconsequential;
by manipulating the current political
insecurity in the States, they focus on
and whip up an audience’s fears into
a frenzy. They’re agitprop  film-
making - propaganda that works
through agitating its audience - at its
most effective. And ugly.

Consider the plots of Uncommon
Valor (1983) Missing in Action
(1984), and this year’s Rambo. The
story in each is simple: either one
man or a small group of men
attempts to rescue American soldiers
officially listed as ‘‘Missing in
Action’’ during the Vietnam war but
actually held captive in prison camps.
Our heroes do this despite the active
interference of status quo American
politicians, who seem to be more on
the side of the Vietnamese govern®
ment. Finally, after the personal loss
of a friend/friends and the killing of
scores of enemy soldiers the MIA’s
are rescued and flown back to heroes’
welcome. Roll credits.

Asidéegtom, the-obscenity of feeding
the hopé§ of Ameritan MIA families,
there age othef Feasons why these
films age worthy taking another look

in content and huge in ~
popularity that they belong together *«

 

at. One

is their style -- an old-

fashioned patriotic appeal dressed up

in slick

editing. While the flash is fret
80’s, their minds are e

WWII.

As in all old-schoa
supposed object

(rescuing

blowing up the da

the point

WIN; to BEAT the|
prove the SUPERIG

and your

war filmmakers were:

Vietnam;
Wayne’s
(1968) Vi

lated onto film in m

terms. ae i
Riding the peace/ lovemnove ‘
the era, filmmakerS\ not —

questioned America’s dirty. ie

war, but

complicated social issues suf
the players became the subjé
just the context:..But by shiftin

new effects and rock-video

 

the MIA’

at all. The

 
  

  

race. Up

  

with the § ep io of John,
gung-ho $he*Green peed
etnam’s iftiaigie WAS Abapns=.

uestl ioning,

the politics of wa

emphasis - from the  Mietham. *war’
where America lost, the*filiimakers
of the 80’s finally get their war

movie. A

Beside

nd the. truth’ gets. shafted.

s‘using the convertion of old

war movies, these soupéd-up models

also play

   

 

¢ collectively, feel es
it's

 

   

that nasty “episode

n of wit oe

 

was. ‘are ‘ere in the og as
‘Gene Hackman’s. char in Un-
common Valor es uring s big pep
tolk, “This Tne ney en dispute
the rightnes Neha ‘you’ re doing.’’
No-fault Vietnam. Except their fault
of course.

The tremendous public appeal of
these films in the States can be

chalked up fo’an-urge to purge bad
times® from the country’s collective

memory.
elsewher

touch some universal chords, at least ,

among
Rambo’s

But their smash box office
e in the world shows they

violence hungry men,
hugh popularity among

Shiite militiamen in Beirut. proves at

  
  
  
 
 
    
   
   
   
        
       
    
      
 
     
    
 
  
  
    
   
    
     

‘no \ ees
; mied about '
Sen! *

“with a simple

Rambo mentor
off one pretty obvious Inodel. 3

? qualities of an effe
~The American hostage crisis in

2 7 na

~ (1982) made him a victim

Domino theory vindice

least that. The reason: these films
create ready-made myths for our
time.

superflous to bring up the
glorification of war and vio-
these films, yet the content
\ shoots so far past mere
that it lapses into a
here mythology is the only
Acomparison that works.
ern-day heroes are the
duct of all that’s good in
laced against all that’s
fare, to put it bluntly, a

makes an

in media.
a such attributes glori-
American Right as
strength, and the
“‘defend’’ territory
s, and then places
e circumstances. The
for a_ survivalist is
sts; killing the enemy
le, and keeping the

        
    
 
   
   
  
  
  
 
          
  
    
 
  
 
  

survival ata
when ever p@
‘““American W
Berets of Vietria
pure “breed of

“When in doub

not limited to
machines’ tp. th

  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 

like og

 

 

5 army. pucdaet Uncommon Valor
pe oa a -handedly, buf

  

be ‘chedentials
heredit See sfglonel
odes progeny of hundreds
years of American. “soldiers. :
almost lost the whole family at
_ Gettysbure, he tells his esl cg

A. certain. losendt named John

~ Rambo (minus the “‘John’’ - legends

need only one name) tops all others
like him. His debut in First Blood
-of police
brutality - a cute twist on anti-war
protesters. As a result, he turns into
the same unstoppable force he was in
Vietnam, turned against an America
where he has no place.

“Working in a factory or a

_with his huge, gleaming knife, ch

   
     
 
   

  

      

“We ©
fi

  
    
  
   
   
   
  
  
  
   
   
    
  
   
   
  
  
    
   
    
  
   
    
  
  
   
  
   
  
     
       
   
 
 
  
  
   
   
  
  
   
  
   
     
  
  
    
  
  
  
     
  
   
   
  
  
  
    
  
 
 
  
     

After retreating to the woods a
subsequently outsmarting hundré
of police and national guard,
returns to seek revenge upon
sheriff that did him wrong.

The outsider wronged by societ
a fairly sturdy character in lege
especially when he returns -for
venge. But First Blood. looks
compared to its offspring.

In Rambo, which Sylvester Stalla
co-wrote with James G. Cameron
the Terminator), all the cards are
the table. Early on, the film sta
that Rambo is of ‘‘Indian-Ger
descent - a helluva combinatio
Especially if you’re trying to brew
a mythic warrior-part survivalist, p
Beowulf. His ex-commanding offi

 

 

 

 

restaurant aren't suitable
occupations for a demi-2¢

Trautman calls him a ‘‘pure fight
machine with only a desire to wi
war somebody else lost.’’ When
takes on the MIA mission with ord
not to ‘‘engage the enemy,”’ it’s
hearty joke for the audience.
impossible not to imagine him i
combat situation - working in
factory or a restaurant aren’t suital
occupations for a demi-god. In fa
his philosophy is: ‘‘you gotta beco
war.”’

Stallone and Cameron even co
their barebones plot. When go
““home’’ to Vietnam via parachute,
gets hung up by a cord outside
helicopter, which he cuts thro

ying his own unwanted umbilical c
tbe born again. He’s even m
yerworldly because Vietnam, w
Uals the world’s worst place in t
is where __ this “fight
nine’ was truly ‘‘born’’. ““W
Hchoose to call hell, iRe09
ftiman;.‘‘he calls home.’’

yi cerican killing machine
pm*of Rambo even transce
his Own form. When going thro
Paces, .he\ actually becomes
its.” He Jeaps out of pools 4
rivers. ele becomes part of a bank
clayphe'drops silently from trees,
is Propelled : from fireballs w
attacked, WHat the plot doesn’t
the camefa does - it worships
knife, ‘Crossbow, and machine g
with fetish-like close-ups while sa
room for loving shots of his
spectacular weapon of all -